Agnes was grumbling before she threw aside everything that was on her table in a frustrated manner. There was no rage in her sudden action, just pessimism at how pointless continuing her potion is.
It was not salvageable.
There was no care or worry spared at the broken glass that resulted from her recent outburst, and no attention paid to the liquid that was ruining her wooden floor. The destruction and mess she leaves behind will always be dealt with later, whenever she has time for it. Whenever her thoughts aren't occupied by something more important and interesting.
Making this potion successfully would make her the greatest alchemist to ever live, but she also considered moving on to stones in order to try her luck there.
Many people attempted to create this potion she's working on, and so far none of them even managed to come close to succeeding.
Not even her.
And that reminder enraged her.
There was nothing in alchemy that was impossible to Agnes. If there's anything she couldn't do, then it meant that it really is one of the few things that were impossible in life and alchemy. After all, she is the best of the best, and nobody can come close.
If they did, they'd be used as fertilizer for her garden, but that detail wasn't important.
Gathering all the necessary ingredients once more, Agnes propped up her book – the one she wrote herself while researching this particular potion – and decided to try once again. However, she did let out a displeased sound when she noticed that one of her most important ingredients was running scarce.
She had to be really careful if she wanted to have two tries, and she poured the valuable white powder in a small plate making sure to part it evenly to make use of the two portions.
Being meticulous was a vital part in the success of any potion, and she had to be extremely meticulous with this one. Anything could go wrong.
After all, this potion was supposed to grant immortality.
If anyone was going to achieve this, it was her.
Agnes slowly opened one of the bottles that had a disgusting brown liquid with disgusting worm-like things swirling inside of it, and she slowly brought it to her empty cauldron making sure to be extremely precise as she attempted to pour its content. A single drop can make all the difference.
But many excessive drops were poured due to her being startled by whoever decided to be annoying to her at that moment. Did they have to be so noisy when they walked in?
"You're proving to be more of an annoyance than actual help!" She turned around furiously but was surprised when she saw Toby greeting her with a startled face, and he held up his hands in a defensive manner, apologizing without knowing what he's apologizing for. He didn't mean to annoy her. "Oh, it's you. I thought you were that useless-"
Just before she completed her sentence as she relaxed, the person in question walked in with a smug look on his face before a flower glided in the air and hit the side of Agnes' face. "I am back, and I came with gifts."
Agnes' eye fell on the flower he brought and she glared at it. To her, it was not that special. "You've always been good for nothing. What is this?"
"I'll pretend to be hurt." Her useless helper did not react much to her insults, and he still waved the flower in her face despite her not being impressed by it. Toby wondered just how used to the abuse 'Kevin' was, and why he never really had a problem with it. In fact, he seemed to be provoking Agnes intentionally. "Just so you know, this flower was found in an interesting place."
Agnes wasted no time asking, eager to return to her work. "Where?"
"Guess."
Kevin found himself yanked closer by his shirt with Agnes, too close for comfort, looking at him icily. "How painful do you want your death to be for wasting my time?"
"Don't know, be creative." Kevin grinned at her challengingly not the least bit bothered by her threatening hold or words. It really just confused Toby even more, those two were not normal. "This flower was in someone's garden. The Whitlock's."
That made the old witch frown. "Aubrey?"
"Yes, someone's keeping an eye on him."
A strangled sound made the two turn their attention to the forgotten third person.
"Aubrey is a Whitlock?" Came Toby's surprised exclamation before he started to panic at the knowledge that was revealed to him. The Whitlock family are powerful and can be dangerous if angered. It was all he could think of at the moment. "You kidnapped a Whitlock! If they find out about this, we'll all be punished, no, dead. I didn't want to be a part in any of this!"
Kevin snorted at him. "Idiot."
Ignoring the panicking Toby, Agnes pushed her useless useful helper away roughly before she thought about that new bit of information.
The blue flower that she was shown could only be found in one place, and that place was the inside of the Abbott's manor. A massive miserable place – in her opinion – that held many valuable secrets, but was incredibly dull and deserted. As far as she knows, only two people are currently living there.
Maybe that had changed, maybe not.
She hadn't gone there in a while.
However, finding these flowers somewhere that they're not supposed to be meant one obvious thing, someone placed them there. Whoever that someone is might think that they're being clever and sneaky, but they only made it obvious that Aubrey is being watched. Her poor clueless apprentice was being targeted.
These blue flowers attract ghosts after all, and ghosts are primarily used to spy and keep watch on others. It would be so easy for someone who practices necromancy to make use of that.
How annoying.
She really thought she was the only one who knew about Aubrey. She decided to direct her annoyance at her useless helper.
"Are you so inept that you didn't think of finding out who put those there?" She crossed her arms looking at her helper with exasperation clear on her face. He only sighed in response taking a whiff of the flower before recoiling away at the stench that entered his nose. "Do I have to instruct you on everything?"
He was slightly retching at the smell as she watched him without any sympathy.
"I did look into that, but I couldn't find anything." He grumbled not so used to being actually useless. That made Agnes look at him with a deep scowl.
Seems like they really do have pesky necromancer-wannabes after her student, and annoying ones at that. "Figure it out. Find out as much as you can."
"Yeah, yeah." He drawled directing the floating blue flower to the table, but accidently knocked a small plate off of it when he did so. White powder was scattered all over the floor, and they both silently watched as the small plate kept rotating on the floor due to the impact before it finally settled and became still.
Agnes sighed, but the emotion that this sigh expressed was undecipherable.
Her useless helper turned towards her with a straight face. "That wasn't important, was it?"
The white powder was the most valuable ingredient she had, and she was so careful with it earlier before her worthless excuse of a helper decided to show his face. All he had to do was be a little bit careful and not knock over her stuff. Now she found herself missing the most vital component in her potion rendering her unable to continue.
But she wanted to continue, it was all what occupied her mind. There was an empty space in her garden for a new body that she will soon fill with his. She was sure of it.
Toby stared at the two of them standing there in silence wondering why everything was so tense.
And then Toby watched in horror when Agnes pulled one of her small knives to stab Kevin, and Kevin sank to the floor holding his hand in pain as he bled.
But he only looked mildly annoyed.
"You're cleaning all of this." Agnes told him with no care or sympathy in her voice as she pointed at her earlier mess mixed with his blood which was now all over the floor. He slowly tried to pull out the knife from his hand without causing himself so much pain before he gave up just pulled it out with groaned. There was no help offered to him by the two there as he let out a few curses, and Agnes was already gone by then.
The whole scene was shocking to Toby who wasn't used to people so casually stabbing each other, and the way Kevin just wrapped his hand with his shirt to go look for something to stop the bleeding was so natural. It was as if he dealt with that many times. Why would any sane person stay with someone like Agnes?
Toby really wished he could run away, but healso didn't want to die by her.
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